Count Your Shadows
by An Endless Bookmarker
Summary: Count the steps you take to the door. Count the number of lights in the room. And always, always, count your shadows. Heavy AU. One-shot. Crossover.


A/N: It's just a little bunny that hopped itself into my head. Sorry, no Beta. Don't care enough.

"So Naruto, tell me once more—What happened in Takigahara?" A soft but stern voice arose the light bustle of the audience.

The room was not elaborately large nor was it an auditorium wide, however on this day, one could find a multitude of people encompassed in its boundaries. Grim faces and sad frowns adorned the individuals marked in green and blue. While the majority of them were Chuunin of Konohagakure, one could not mistake the signs of a village elder or two as well as the great clan head of the Hyuuga—his presence given wide berth by the ninja around him.

It was not unusual for the room to be filled with ninja; shinobi of many caliber step into the office of the Hokage of Fire Country, for missions, for briefings, and sometimes, in Naruto's case, just for the fun of it. However this time, it was not to be as simple. No, the shinobi assembled were not only all related to Naruto in some way, but also to the another special individual.

In the middle of the room, a lone individual stood, his face dark and gloom. His eyes were cast with shadows and he made no mention to talk. He was hunched over with sadness, anyone could tell. His shoulders looked as if they were slightly shaking. He slowly fell into the chair that was placed for him, his usual exuberance gone. It was not a change the citizens of Konohagakure were used to.

He looked as if he was trying to speak, his mouth open and poised to utter the truth. However he closed them as his lips began to tremble. It was obvious, something traumatic had happened and he could not say it. The golden bangs of his hair hid his tired weepy blue eyes. His newly upgraded orange jumpsuit was not stained with blood, just dirt and grime. It was the strangest sight to see Konoha's resident prankster in such a sad state.

Her usual demeanor was gone, Tsunade did not care—she did care for the boy who sat in front of her. She thought of him as grandson, as someone close and precious. For him to be like this wore a hole in her heart, but she knew she had to get the truth. She was not the only individual that yearned to know the truth.

"We found you in the midst of the clearing of Takigahara. There were no people, only bones. There was no sound. Just . . . empty. Takigahara had a population of over 30,000 people, Naruto. We need to know—What happened in Takigahara?" Tsunade posed the question everyone had on their minds.

When the reports came in, it was unbelievable. This was far from the Uchiha massacre. Bodies were bodies. However amongst the town of Takigahara, there were none. Just dust and bones. No animals nor insects—the Aburame had investigated quite thoroughly. Just the quiet sound of the shadow setting across the sky filled the streets.

Naruto was found at the village center, his eyes gazing upwards—a sad smile on his face. Their approach did nothing to rouse him from his what-seemed-to-be wakeless stare.

"Naruto . . ." A voice rang through-out the crowd. It came from behind Kiba and his family, his face, too, grim.

All turned to look and their eyes softened at the sight of the clan head. It must have been especially hard on him—there was none granted audience with Naruto before Tsunade proclaimed for it to be given orally with the affected parties in the room.

Hiashi was sullen, a rare to see such a stoic face differ from norm. His face and lips did not betray his usual cold exterior but his words had a hint of longing and desperation.

"Please, tell us what became of Hinata Hyuuga."

Naruto seemed to avert his gaze before nodding to himself. His eyes suddenly growing into acute attention. His mouth opened—and a tale spilled from his mouth.

"It was two days after we had arrived in Takigahara."

* * *

We had already scouted the perimeter and looked for any type of plot or conspiracy against the government. As expected there was none—judging from how paranoid Takigahara was at the smallest of incidents.

Hinata was the only other person I knew. Two others accompanied us as per Hokage's orders—Ryuuya Aburame and Taichi Daisuke. It was a routine mission.

Go to Takigahara.

Guard them from "supposed" thieves.

Receive the mission payment.

Return home.

It was on the third day of guarding the perimeter did the citizens of Takigahara asked us to move our perimeter closer to their central hall—where they would be unveiling some type of ancient artifact.

Takigahara was not a small town—30,000 people could barely be called small even by Konohagakure's standards. It was a trade town, deep at the heart of Konoha. Almost all trade from the outlying lands to even the edge of Konoha itself crossed Takigahara's borders. Merchants filled the streets at all times—so as a precaution, many a time Konoha and her shinobi would be called on to protect Takigahara's investments from thieves.

I was lounging about on the hall's roof top over the central city plaza. Hundreds of citizens filled the tightly packed streets around the area—making spotting would-be thieves even harder.

Thankfully, the unveiling was done in a wide-enough area and given wide-enough berth that an individual would be hard-pressed to just up and snatch whatever was being unveiled.

I held back a yawn as a soft voice giggled behind me.

I opened one eye to see a young girl my age biting back some more laughter. Her small dimpled cheeks rose with the whites of her eyes. Her irises were just as white but that did not stop a blush from reaching across her face.

"What?" I said—my mouth still opened wide.

"Eep!" Hinata closed her mouth abruptly and her eyes fell from my gaze.

"Just . . . you shouldn't be so tired Naruto-kun, you received the most sleep out of all of us."

I scratched the back of my head and apologized.

"Sorry, Sorry, just . . . all of this is so boring, you know?" I proclaimed.

"Why can't we be rescuing princesses or defending castles from being invaded!" I pointed at the sky to show how much more adventurous things could be done.

"Why are we here, protecting this lame old town? Haven't they been doing this unveiling thing for some time now? Nothing has ever happened right?" I pressed.

Hinata shook her head with a smile.

"Be thankful for an easy mission, we don't get many of those in these times." Her voice was a bit clipped at the end.

I nodded slowly, the last mission I was on consisted of a dead Kage brought back to life and fighting my would be murderers. Gaara and me definitely need to meet in more welcoming environments.

"Well . . . I guess."

Hinata slowly wedged out an answer however.

"But I know what you mean." She slowly reached her gaze towards the audience and then beyond them to the mountains outside of town.

I gave her a questioning glance.

She ducked behind her hair and started to answer hesitantly.

"I-I just m-mean . . . "

She shifted her weight to one foot and seemed to draw enough courage to speak up again.

"S-sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be up there." She casted her gaze upwards.

"To be a star or just . . . not worry about the things happening in this world. To be away from it all." Her voice never seemed more far away.

I nodded. It wasn't a feeling I did not know about. There were times where I just wished the Kyuubi was never sealed into me—or that maybe there were no ninjas, just everyone living happily and peacefull in life.

She seemed to regain her usual demeanor as her blush came back full force.

"A-ah they're starting." She exclaimed. My gaze darted to the center of the plaza as a watched a slightly over-weight man dressed in elaborate blue and brown clothes walk towards stage.

The town's mayor always seemed to be the most plump of fellows.

His voice rang out throughout the square and the milling of people came to a slow halt.

"Citizens of Takigahara! Today, I, Mayor of Takigahara, Yoichi Furahara, son of the previous Mayor of Takigahara, will unveil another of the town's most prized possessions!"

As he said this, his hands pointed to the center of the plaza stage, where a pedestal with a cloth on top of it laid. His hands grasped at the cloth at the end of his line and pulled it away, revealing the contents.

I actually leaned down and got to the edge of the building to take a closer look.

It was just a strange and ornate box. It was covered in a lot of markings and what appeared to be gems. A very strange and ornate rich box then. I could feel a little excitement bubbling. Maybe some strange and ancient treasure? Magical artifact?

The mayor continued to give some spiel about how the box was given to the first village mayor by some ancient deity or god and tasked to be held for some indiscriminate amount of time. I mostly tuned it out—the boring parts anyway. I picked up that it was only to be opened when the right signs were given—and I'm guessing these signs were probably skewed along the path of history.

Whatever the reason, it was being opened on this day and everyone should be excited.

I gave a snort.

"Hurry up and open it."

Hinata poked me in the ribs.

"Shh, Naruto-kun."

The mayor finally finished his speech and began to unravel the string holding the box together.

Really . . . string?

The lid was slowly removed as the tension began to increase.

The mayor dipped his hand into the box to retrieve what seemed to be a scroll?

A scroll . . . a measly scroll.

I sighed.

"How boring."

Hinata shook her head.

"And here! This must be a message from the gods!" The mayor proclaimed. His hands unraveled the scroll as he read its contents.

His happy plump face gave way to confusion and then anger.

His voice seemed to bark out some orders at the near-by guards and suddenly he was off.

Not another word.

The crowd broke out into chaos and confusion—questioning nearby government officials.

No answers were given, however the mayor continued to stalk off into the distant.

"What do you think happened?" I asked. How odd, I wonder what the scroll said?

"I couldn't read the scroll before he crumpled it up again." Hinata apologized.

I waved my hand.

"Eh, no need. We're out of here now anyway. Mission was just until the ceremony ended." A jabbed my thumb behind me as I turned towards her. My thumb pointed at the multitudes of dispersing citizens and officials.

"It looks over to me."

"And so we left. The mission was over, and we had received our pay before the ceremony."

I answered shakily. The others in the room seemed to be digesting my words.

Before they could ask another question, I began again.

"We were actually only a few hours outside the town when night fell. We were surprised to hear the sound of footsteps running towards us."

I quickly pulled out a kunai as did Ryuuya and Taichi. Hinata stopped us before we broke out into full offense mode however as she waved us down.

"It's just the mayor's accountant."

That's when things began to go to hell.

The accountant only told us of one thing before I began my dash back to Takigahara. My team-mates were probably a little less than happy with my decision of running off without them.

"The Mayor is dead."

I wasn't sure what else the accountant had to say. We were off before he stopped.

What we later realized was that we would have been better off listening to the accountant.

We arrived at Takigahara's gates once again. It was approximately 7 hours since we had left. It was the middle of the night now, however Takigahara was advanced enough to have streetlights alongside their paved roads.

What the most eerie thing was, however, was that there was no sound. Hinata was the first to notice that no one was on the streets. Takigahara wasn't a small village—people were bound to be found ambling its roads at any time of the night anywhere.

We came to dead silence. No one was out and about nor was any sounds heard. Lights were on, but no one was home.

We knew something was wrong—I took point. Ryuuya had sent out some of his kikaichū and they had come back with nugatory. No one was out.

I really had a bad feeling about this.

"I have a bad feeling about this guys."

I said it pretty loudly.

Taichi muttered a curse.

"Shut up, idiot. Whatever happened here, we should stay as quiet and possible in case something happens to us too."

He shook his head and I gave him the finger. He was a bit of a jerk ever since we started this mission.

Hinata spoke out softly and suddenly.

"There's movement behind us." We quickly turned to find no one.

"Are you sure?" Ryuuya spoke out curtly—as do all Aburame.

Hinata nodded in confusion, "I saw something move near the range of my vision." She pointed towards the veins bulging around her eyes—her Byakugan was already working.

I spoke out, "Then let's go find it."

Ryuuya shook his head.

"We should head straight towards the Mayor's Office." We were clearly disagreeing with the plan before Taichi stepped in.

"Here, since I'm team leader, I make the calls. Naruto, Hinata, you two go check out what it was—I and Ryuuya will go ahead and meet up with you at the central city hall."

I nodded—the only polite thing he's said today.

Ryuuya gave me one last look before dashing away with Taichi who was already on the roof tops going towards the last known area the mayor was in.

Hinata grasped the excess of my jacket and nudged me towards the direction she saw.

"It's this w-way."

I nodded slowly before running that way.

It was the last I saw of Ryuuya.

It wasn't long before Hinata uttered out some confusion and fear.

"There are no people." She softly spoke.

I froze where I stood.

"What do you mean?" I slowly tilted my head towards her.

"No people?" I probed.

"I've been looking into all of these houses and restaurants. There are no people, only clothes."

I gulped.

"What are we dealing with here, Hinata?" Panic leaked into my voice.

"Where did they all go? Did they decide to all jump naked into a lake or are they just gone?" I stopped to crouch on the roof I was standing.

"What kind of jutsu could do this?" I uttered.

Hinata shook her head.

"There is no residual chakra either. Nothing in the air or ground. Whatever it was, it wasn't a jutsu of any kind." Her voice was in disbelief. Mine was probably too.

"Then . . . taijutsu? Maybe some type of kinjutsu?" I grabbed my head.

"Arrgh! Whatever, let's go find someone or anyone . . ." I shook my head and dashed off again.

Hinata nodded and followed me.

It was still night out.

It was only after 45 minutes of traveling did we start to slow down and give up. We jumped into a small clearing between houses and I was just a second before jumping off again when Hinata stopped me.

"Naruto." She said, her voice was suddenly serious.

I froze midstep and even turned to her in the same position. I was trying to shake off this feeling of evil supernatural ghosts. I shouldn't have watched the scary horror movie marathon before leaving.

"Naruto, we still haven't found any people." She said very quietly.

"Yeah?" I hesitantly said.

"And I don't see any people around us."

"Yeah . . ." I don't know where she's going with this.

"Then where is that shadow coming from?" She pointed to the curb. We could see the street lights around the bend, as the houses turned. There, in the distance, was a shadow. A person's shadow.

Cold ice filled my being.

"What the f-" Before I could finish Hinata had already dashed towards it.

I was right after her before the shadow disappeared.

By the time we got there, there was nothing. I couldn't shake that feeling however. And neither could Hinata with the stare she was giving me.

We were being watched.

"Nara?" I spoke quietly. Hoping my fears would be stilled and swept away.

"No chakra." She uttered.

We both gulped. Something dangerous was going on.

By this time, we actually started running towards the city hall. Strength in numbers and all that.

And every once in awhile, Hinata would get this look and I would know. She saw something, but for the betterment of our sanity, she did not say anything about it.

We were actually close the hall when we heard a scream yell out. That was when we finally reached the edge of the central city plaza. We could see Taichi bursting through the door. His body rolled onto the stage as the splinters of wood fell around him. He looked up at us and in a single moment told us,

"RUN!" His voice was loud and hoarse. I could almost see the fear. The way his arms trembled and body shook.

From what, however, was probably answered when suddenly, he was nothing but bones.

One moment there was flesh, and the next, it was like the skin had been ripped from his bones. There was no blood or organs either. It was like someone completely tore the skeleton from him and left it behind.

It was the most gruesome sight, one I probably would have never forgotten, if not for Hinata's gasping and a surprisingly grim voice behind me.

"We must hurry, we haven't got much time."

I turned around startled. A hand had grasped mine and hinata's shoulders before pulling us towards it. We were off a good distance, running away from city hall before I could properly judge the situation.

Hinata was already analyzing the mysterious individual.

We got a good few blocks away before he suddenly turned around and stuck out his hand.

I grasped it, having the most befuddled expression on my face.

He was short. Curly hair. He seemed my age, but his eyes. His eyes were green and they seemed so much older than mine. Like Hokage-ojisan. He wore the strangest clothes—most likely foreign, made of brown and more brown. A red bow-tie strapped to his neck.

He was probably a citizen with the way he was heaving. He smiled and laughed a little as his hand was shaken.

"Why, put it there. Natives! Ah, love those clothes. They seem so fashionable. You are fashionable right? If I were to take a vacation, I'd have your clothes as a constant first impression. And you! Your eyes look blind! But they're not! They're not blind! They're perfect! It's as if you can see everything." At this moment, he began to move his hands around Hinata's head. She brushed him away.

"I-I can see everything." She spoke quietly, her voice inflected the disbelief that just moments ago, Taichi was murdered before our very eyes.

"Really now? Interesting…" He spoke a little. Suddenly, he turned around and walked towards the center of the area we were in.

Before I could get a word, he walked up to what would be the strangest little house in the world? It was some type of box.

Hinata was probably just as mystified.

I spoke out.  
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, of Konohagakure. Are you a foreigner visiting Takigahara?"

I pressed.

"Foreigner? I don't get that much a lot. Well introductions and introductions. Who are you?" He pointed at Hinata.

She was a bit panicky being put on the spot but she regained some semblance of sanity.

"Hinata Hyuuga of Konohagakure."

He nodded before tapping on the bright blue exterior to his little house.

"Well this is the Tardis, and I'm the Doctor."

We stared at him. Doctor?

"Doctor?" Hinata asked?

"Yeah, and it seems as if you guys have a bit of a shadow problem."

He pointed. His voice suddenly became very grim as he pointed towards the edge of the clearing we made it to.

There, under the street light, was a shadow. A shadow with no body behind it.


End file.
